When whites arrived in
1890, the Shona and the Ndebele people, who claimed sovereignty, populated the
land between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers. It is thought the Shona had been
there for about 1,000 years. The Ndebele arrived in the 1830s, having migrated
north from Natal after falling out with the Zulu King. In 1889, the imperialist
Cecil Rhodes, who had made a fortune in diamond mining in the Cape, set up the
British South Africa Company to explore north of the Limpopo. He had already
obtained exclusive mining rights from the Ndebele king, Lobengula, in return
for £100 a month, 1,000 rifles, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, and a riverboat.
Lobengula had not conferred land rights. The first 200 white settlers were each
promised a 3,000-acre farm and gold claims in return for carving a path through
Mashonaland.

The Shona were fragmented and did not have the
superior weaponry to resist the British. The British flag was raised at Fort
Salisbury on 13 September 1890. The name Rhodesia was adopted in 1895. It became
the British colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1923. Three years after whites arrived
in Mashonaland, they conquered King Lobengula and his people in neighbouring
Matabeleland. Each volunteer in the war was granted 6,000 acres of captured
land. Within a year 10,000 square miles around Lobengula's capital Bulawayo
had been marked out. Ndebele villagers who returned were treated as tenants.
Most of their cattle were seized and they were forced to work on the white farms.
In Mashonaland, the settlers imposed a 'hut tax' of 10 shillings (50p). Those
who could not pay were told to work to earn the money.

When the Ndebele and Shona rebelled in 1896, they
were put down and their leaders hanged. As the settlers developed commercial
farming, some lands were reserved for African occupation amid fears total dispossession
could lead to uprisings. But the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 barred African
land ownership outside the reserves, except in a special freehold purchase area.
Africans not needed for labor on white farms were removed to the reserves,
which became increasingly congested. In 1965, Prime Minister Ian Smith unilaterally
declared independence from Britain. Two major liberation organizations emerged.
Zanu, under Robert Mugabe, and Zapu, under Joshua Nkomo. Black nationalist opposition
began its armed resistance in 1966.

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When international economic sanctions were imposed
against Smith's regime, white commercial agriculture was heavily subsidized,
making it even harder for African peasants to compete. The "land question" was
a major cause of the guerrilla war, which was fought with increasing ferocity
during the 1970s. In 1979, renewed negotiations in London led to the Lancaster
House Agreement, which paved the way for independence in April 1980. Mugabe,
who won a landslide victory in the first free election, promised to resettle
blacks on white land. Independence saw the transfer of political power from
whites to blacks, but not land, which remained in the hands of whites. Thousands
of whites opted for Zimbabwean nationality after independence. Britain gave
the new government "£44m for resettlement projects." This sum was really to
pay white land occupiers who wanted to sell. There was no consideration given
to compensating Africans. Under the Lancaster House constitution the Zimbabwe
Government could only buy white occupied land from "willing sellers".

When this expired after 10 years, the government
passed a law empowering it to make compulsory purchases. There have been few
transfers in the last decade. Three years ago Mugabe announced a list of 1,500
farms set for compulsory acquisition. He said Britain should foot the bill for
compensating the white farmers because Rhodesian colonists had stolen the land
from blacks in the first place. Hotep: It is my opinion that Mugabe was wrong
to even talk about Britain compensating white farmers. He should have been calling
for Britain to compensate dispossessed Blacks. If one illegally acquired something,
they should not be compensated for returning it.

In February 2000, President Mugabe tried to change the constitution to
allow confiscation of white land. When he was defeated, he encouraged the
occupation of white occupied farms by veterans from the Rhodesian War.
Blacks reoccupied hundreds of farms. Caught in the middle of the
confrontation were the black laborers who rely on the white farms for
their livelihood and accommodation. Mugabe pushed through a bill in April
empowering the government to seize white occupied land and declaring
Britain "liable" for compensation to whites. The UK says it will fund land
reform, but only if it benefits the poor. Hotep: When was the UK ever
concerned about the poor in Africa? This is a popular line used to stall
discussions about compensation.

Nigeria: At the Restaurant

The UK knows they have to pay but they want to be
the ones to determine who is paid. Same Slavery. White farmers agree the need
for land redistribution, but say there are already plenty of farms on offer to
the government. They argue that transferring large farms to people who do not
know how to run them could destroy the economy.

Agriculture is one of Zimbabwe's top foreign exchange
earners and its largest employer. As the country struggles with crippling inflation
and unemployment, many rural poor say it is not land, but jobs, which is the
real issue. Hotep: Agriculture is a top foreign currency earner for whites not
the dispossessed Blacks, most of whom have been so colonized they cannot see
pass being the employees of whites. The way forward must be education so that
both Blacks and Whites can develop respect for their common ancestry and whites
compensating Blacks for genocide. The present tobacco rulings show that even
whites acknowledge that people who profit from the sufferings of others must
pay restitution. We can all collectively speak of higher development when these
issues are settled.